This site hopefully can provide some vehicle by which I can comment, complain, and once in a while praise the state of religion in this country and around the world from a liberal protestant perspective.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Anniversary

This month is my third anniversary of this site. In that time my focus has been on the mainline but I think in the end what happens there affects the religious and social possibilities of us as a nation.

In a country facing polarization, when religion is increasingly marked by dogmatism and hostility to a liberal pluralistic society, we need a religion which can build communities where folks with differences can live together so as to build up the lives of all.

In a world marked by absolutes breaking out into conflicts we need a religion which understands transcendence as that which limits us and makes us dependent on one another and that small still voice as we try to discern together what is required of us.

In a world which depersonalizes this or that group, we need a religion which really does believe in imagio dei. There are problems in liberal religious communities to be sure but this is one of the few places where I can see such a faith taking root.